Coping with a Power Cut in the Office

Power cuts and outages are one of those things. Part of life that we never expect, but unfortunately can’t always avoid. Total and long term outages are much rarer than they once were. But, more likely in periods of poor weather and high pressure. Especially if you live or work in a more remote area.

When we know that there is a storm approaching, or there’s another kind of weather warning or natural disaster to watch out for, we prepare. We stock up on the essentials, we make sure our home is safe, and we bunker down for the long haul. In these cases, if the power goes out, we’re ready. We’ve got everything that we need. It’s often the unexpected power cuts that catch us out. We’re at work, or getting on with life at home. We might be in the middle of cooking dinner for family or completing an important project when suddenly we find ourselves stuck in the dark.

When it comes as a surprise, suddenly finding yourself in the dark and without power can be quite frightening. You can feel lost especially now that so many of us spend most of our time online or on the computer. If you run your own business and the office is open when the power goes down, it can be hard to know what to do. Losing a days work can have a massive effect on a smaller business, so you are unlikely to want to send everyone home for the day. Your staff might also be reluctant to lose a days pay for something that they can’t control. But, when you are so used to relying on technology and the internet, it’s hard to know how to stay productive and make the most of your time without it. Let’s take a look at some things that you could do.

Make Sure it is an Outage

When the power goes down at work, your first thought might be “oh it’s a power cut,” but that isn’t always the case. Check the other buildings in your area to make sure that it isn’t just you. If it is just you, check obvious causes by having a look at your fuse box if you’ve got access to it. If it’s a more serious problem that you can’t tackle yourself call out an emergency electrician to help, but never try and fix anything electrical if you’re not sure what you are doing. It’s not worth putting yourself or your staff at risk.

If it does appear to be an outage, use your cell phone to check your provider’s websites, or social media feeds for updates and to report your issues.

Make the Most of Your Cell

Most of us today have smartphones. If yours is fully charged and you’ve got plenty of data, there is probably still a lot that you can do. Use the downtime to update your business social media feeds, reply to emails, check your calendar, make calls and anything else that’s easy to do on a small screen. Ask your staff what they’ve got available, you might have tablets and even laptops that you can hook up to a smartphone hotspot.

Find a Pen

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Believe it or not, there is a lot that you can do without any kind of technology. You’re just not used to thinking that way anymore. With a notepad and a pen, you can draft emails, website updates, blog posts, social media updates, and spreadsheets. You can write letters and to-do lists, and you can start an inventory sheet.

See it as an Opportunity

When was the last time you did a stock take? When was the last time you inventoried stationary or updated your order sheets? When was the last time that you tidied your desk or stock cupboards?

If you reach the point where you simply can’t get online, and you’ve done all that you can with pen and paper, see this as an opportunity to get stuck in with all of those little jobs that you never normally get time for. Write a to-do list of cleaning, tidying and organizing jobs that you can do by hand.

Work from Home

Ask yourself if you and your staff could be more productive working from home? If houses haven’t been affected by the outage, they could probably get more done remotely, keeping in touch by phone throughout the day. You might even be better shipping them off to a coffee shop outside of the affected area if you need them to be online.

Keep some staff in the office to check in with everyone, to keep everything updated and organized and to get stuck in with manual tasks. But, it might not be productive to keep everyone in one place. Set people tasks and send them out into the world to get them done.

Rearrange Meetings

If you’ve got meetings coming up in the next few days, why not get in touch and try to rearrange now that you’ve got nothing else to do? If the people that you are meeting are also suffering from a lack of power and they aren’t too formal, they might be happy to find a use for their time.

Be Prepared

If power outages are something that you have to deal with on a regular basis, it can be a good idea to take precautions so that it never causes any downtime in your business. Simple things like buying candles and torches, and getting in some battery-powered emergency heaters and even blankets can make a huge difference. But, it might be worth taking more significant steps like installing UPS (uninterrupted power supplies) on some of your computers. These will allow your technology to start running off their battery as soon as the power goes down. It can also be worth ensuring that important files and documents are saved offline, as well as on the cloud so that you can continue to work even if you are forced offline.

Just remember that a power outage doesn’t have to be a terrible thing, and it certainly doesn’t mean that you have to stop work. Think about the best ways to get things done and stay productive. You might even find that having to think outside of the box helps you to be more creative and get more done.